Prometheus Fusion Perfection

All Photos.

TV Asahi did a report from the lab:

We received the final ceramic for the Langmuir probe. It fits a little loose, but I think it will do.

Finally got a new drill… I’ve been borrowing my shop mate’s!

I started to explore the gas type calibration on the ion gauge. Until now it’s been set to air. But now we are running a deuterium atmosphere, so I tried setting the gauge to D2:

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We saw the following difference in reading:

So 10 millitorr on the air setting is equilivent to 29 millitor on the deuterium setting. Big difference.

The lower pressure threshold to strike a plasma is ~20 millitoor in deuterium mode.

Discuss.

So it was noted on the fusor forums that I’m getting about 10% of the fusion I should be for the power going in. This is likely due to a leak or other contaminant in the chamber. Carl Willis suggested I drop rubbing alcohol into each gasket individually and check for a change in plasma color (hydrocarbons glow a steel gray compared to the purple of the deuterium plasma).I took a first stab at this but didn’t see any color changes. Here is a dropper of alcohol:

I also got a mirror for safer viewing of the plasma (the mirror does not reflect xrays):

Speaking of safety, I have a meeting with Dept of Health’s Dr.Karam. He’s a scientist and he sounds genuinely interested in the project. A radiation specialist, he is bringing a wide array of detectors to get a full profile of our radiation output. Should be really educational. Looking forward to it.

And finally I had lunch at Google NYC the other day: